1 male
- Male
- Female
5x2x2 community setup.
Filtration:
fx6, xxxl sponge filter, 2000lph canister. 2000lph powered.
Heat:
2x 300w heaters at either end of the tank.
Flow:
Moderate. Top left to right. Back left forward and down. Over cave entrance.
Setup:
Slate roof tiles positioned on caves. Large pieces of bogwood sat on top of the slates. Bare bottom tank.
Waterchange:
I did 2x 50% water changes with water @30c one on the 1/1/19 one on the 2/1/19.
Spawning behaviour:
About a month before trapping began the female become extremeley gravid.
I never witnessed any spawning behaviour prior to trapping.
2 weeks before trapping I had noticed the odd small mark on the female. It could have been fighting/courting/trapping but I never saw it myself.
7/1/19
I came home from work to find the male trapping the female far left cave under the downward flow. I quickly covered that half of the tank with a towel and left the lights off. Stopped all feeding from now on! No water changes. Hands out of the tank.
I then monitored ph 2-3 times per day to try hold it around ph 6.1-6.3
Ph 6.1
Tds 185ppm
Temp 26c
11/1/19
The other fish in the tank were looking hungry and I was becoming nervous that any eggs would be on the menu if they had the chance. So I fed a very small amount to see if it would put the l253 off trapping. It didn't. So I fed as normal from now on.
12/1/19
Around 7pm the female left the cave. A quick look with a torch and the male was on a huge clutch of orange eggs. The clutch was roughly 2.5"x2"×2.5". The eggs are around 6/7mm in diameter. Holding them in his mouth and moving them around slightly as if he was chewing them. (Possibly because I was shining a torch at him haha)
- Male on eggs
Tds 201ppm
Temp 27.1c
18/1/19
7pm I checked on the male to see a wriggler outside the cave. I quickly set up some homemade fry boxes and managed with some luck, to scoop the escapee up with a small net.
I later noticed about 15 wrigglers in the cave but most of the eggs were still intact. I decided to leave the eggs with dad till the morning.
19/1/19
9.30am i decided to strip what I thought would all be wrigglers by now. I was wrong!
- Eggs
- Hatched
